The protein kinases represent a large family of proteins, which play a central role in the regulation of a wide variety of cellular processes and maintaining control over cellular function. A partial, non-limiting, list of these kinases include: receptor tyrosine kinases such as platelet-derived growth factor receptor kinase (PDGF-R), the receptor kinase for stem cell factor, c-kit, the nerve growth factor receptor, trkB, and the fibroblast growth factor receptor, FGFR3; non-receptor tyrosine kinases such Abl and the fusion kinase BCR-Abl, Fes, Lck and Syk; and serine/threonine kinases such as b-RAF, MAP kinases (e.g., MKK6) and SAPK2β. Aberrant kinase activity has been observed in many disease states including benign and malignant proliferative disorders as well as diseases resulting from inappropriate activation of the immune and nervous systems.
The novel compounds of this invention inhibit the activity of one or more protein kinases and are, therefore, expected to be useful in the treatment of kinase-associated diseases.